Global Pulse

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  • Macao chief executive’s Europe visit highlights SAR’s bridge role, say experts

    Macao chief executive’s Europe visit highlights SAR’s bridge role, say experts

    Between April 17 and late April 2026, Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Chief Executive Sam Hou-fai led an official and business delegation on a landmark multi-nation tour of Europe, stopping in Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and Belgium. The trip has concluded with a slate of tangible cooperation outcomes and widespread expert acknowledgment of Macao’s growing unique value as a connectivity hub bridging China and international markets, according to international and China-based analysts.

    During his stop in Lisbon, Sam held high-level meetings with Portuguese President Antonio Jose Seguro and top leaders from Portugal’s executive, legislative and judicial branches. In these discussions, he detailed the successful implementation of the “one country, two systems” framework in Macao over the years, highlighting the SAR’s sustained stability and development under the policy.

    Carmen Amado Mendes, president of the Lisbon-based Macao Scientific and Cultural Center, emphasized that Macao occupies a one-of-a-kind space in China-Portugal bilateral relations. Rooted in centuries of historical connections between the two nations, Mendes noted, Macao functions as an exceptionally effective platform for advancing exchanges across politics, business, academic research and culture.

    Bernardo Mendia, secretary-general of the Portugal-China Chamber of Commerce and Industry, added that Macao’s institutional advantages under “one country, two systems” create a low-barrier, familiar operating environment for Portuguese-speaking enterprises looking to enter the massive Chinese mainland market. This unique positioning, experts agree, cannot be easily replicated by other global hubs.

    Building on this longstanding role, the 2026 tour expands Macao’s connectivity footprint to new markets. The tour delivered clear practical results: 61 bilateral agreements were signed during the Portugal stop, covering sectors from cross-border trade and technological innovation to tourism and educational cooperation. An additional 48 agreements were formalized during the delegation’s time in Spain, spanning high technology, international expansion of Macao’s exhibition brands and cross-border sports event cooperation.

    Lao Chi Ngai, president of the Macao Economic Association, pointed out that adding Spain to the official itinerary marks a strategic milestone. For decades, Macao has anchored its role as a bridge between China and Portuguese-speaking economies; this tour signals a deliberate expansion into a broader platform that connects China with both Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking regions across the globe. Mendia echoed this assessment, noting that the Spain visit makes clear Macao’s goal to widen its cooperation scope, turning its latent connectivity advantages into concrete economic gains for all parties involved.

    Carlos Cid Alvares, president of the Macao delegation of the Portugal-China Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told Xinhua that Macao is perfectly positioned to act as a dual-language, dual-system platform linking Chinese markets with Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking economies. The SAR can provide targeted support covering legal compliance, linguistic services and institutional navigation that lowers barriers to entry for companies on both sides.

    The delegation included not only Macao-based entrepreneurs but also representatives from the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin and other Chinese mainland enterprises, which conducted a six-day round of business exchanges across Portugal and Spain. Alvares explained that the tour advances what stakeholders call “platform-based acceleration,” driven by the growing synergy between Macao and the Hengqin cooperation zone. This model supports two-way economic flow: it helps Chinese enterprises expand globally, particularly into Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking markets, while also streamlining the process for foreign firms to invest in the Chinese mainland.

    Looking ahead, Mendes noted that Macao already has a strong track record supporting trade fairs, business exchanges and commercial information circulation between China and Europe. Going forward, the SAR can further expand its footprint in high-growth areas including financial services, technological innovation, and coordinated development within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

    Francisco Jose Leandro, an associate professor at the University of Macau’s Faculty of Social Sciences, framed Macao’s evolving role in a broader national development context. By leveraging its deep historical, linguistic and institutional assets, Macao has already established itself as a functional connector linking China with the European Union, Ibero-American economies, and the broader multilateral trading system. As China pursues high-level opening-up and the Greater Bay Area deepens integration, Leandro added, Macao is set to play an increasingly critical role in advancing global trade facilitation, high-quality professional services, and international connectivity.

    Across the board, experts from home and abroad agreed that the 2026 European tour solidifies Macao’s unique position in China’s international engagement, turning its longstanding historical and institutional advantages into shared growth opportunities for stakeholders across China and Europe.

  • The other life of US soldier accused of betting on Maduro’s removal

    The other life of US soldier accused of betting on Maduro’s removal

    A decorated U.S. Army Special Forces master sergeant is facing a slew of federal charges for allegedly exploiting classified knowledge of the covert operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro to place illegal, profitable bets on the outcome of the mission, federal prosecutors have confirmed. The case has thrown a spotlight on growing regulatory concerns over unregulated crypto prediction platforms that enable government insiders to profit from confidential national security information.

    Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a 17-year active-duty soldier stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, who earned promotion to master sergeant in 2023, has been at the center of the unfolding scandal. As a member of elite special operations command, Van Dyke signed a strict non-disclosure agreement in 2018 that bound him to protect all sensitive classified information, acknowledging the U.S. government placed unique trust in him to guard operational secrets. Prosecutors allege that despite this commitment, he used his insider access to details of the January Maduro seizure to trade on Polymarket, a crypto-based prediction market, netting more than $400,000 in illicit winnings.

    Outside of his military career, Van Dyke built a growing side career as a real estate investor, public records and online profiles show. He founded Better Homes NC LLC, a property investment firm registered in 2022, and owns at least six residential properties across North Carolina. He also operates a popular mountain Airbnb retreat called Daddy Bear Cave, where he holds a 5-star superhost rating, with guests praising his responsiveness and attention to detail. Most notably, public property records show Van Dyke closed on a $340,000, 2,400-square-foot three-bedroom home just 20 days after Maduro’s capture, coinciding with the transfer of his alleged betting winnings. His wife works alongside him in the real estate industry, advertising rental and sales listings through major industry brands, though her social media accounts have been taken offline in recent days, and Van Dyke’s own Facebook profile currently lists him as single.

    According to the unsealed indictment issued last week, Van Dyke created his Polymarket account on December 26, 2025, using a virtual private network to route his connection through a foreign country to hide his location. Over the following week, between December 27 and January 2, he invested roughly $33,934 into a series of bets that predicted the timeline of U.S. military action in Venezuela and the date of Maduro’s removal from power.

    On January 3, just hours after Van Dyke placed his final bet, then-President Donald Trump publicly announced that U.S. special operations forces had captured Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores in an overnight raid in Caracas. The couple were transported to the USS Iwo Jima, the U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship staged in the Caribbean for the mission, with photos later confirming Maduro in custody. Prosecutors also allege that just over an hour after Trump’s public announcement of the capture, Van Dyke uploaded a photo to his personal Google account showing him posing with a rifle alongside other special operations soldiers on the deck of a ship at sunrise, apparently confirming his presence on the operation.

    Polymarket, the platform Van Dyke allegedly used, has faced growing regulatory scrutiny in recent months over the risks of insider trading by government officials with access to non-public information. The platform’s anonymous blockchain-based structure has been compared to the “Wild West” by legal experts, as most users cannot be identified by their public blockchain addresses alone. In early January, after Maduro’s capture, online investigators quickly noticed an anonymous bettor had earned nearly half a million dollars from correctly predicting the seizure, sparking widespread public outcry, but the bettor’s identity remained unknown for months.

    Prosecutors say Van Dyke made a critical misstep that unmasked him: he used his personal email address to register his Polymarket account. After news reports began highlighting the large winning bet, Van Dyke allegedly took steps to cover his tracks, closing his account and attempting to hide his illicit winnings. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, he first withdrew roughly $409,881 in winnings and transferred most of the sum to a foreign interest-generating crypto vault, then changed the email associated with his crypto exchange account to a new, unlinked address. On January 16, he transferred the full sum, including accumulated interest totaling approximately $444,209, to a new personal brokerage account. Despite these efforts, federal investigators were able to trace the activity back to Van Dyke and unseal the full indictment last week.

    Van Dyke faces five federal charges: unlawful use of confidential government information for personal profit, theft of non-public government data, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and unlawful monetary transaction. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has also filed a separate civil lawsuit against him alleging insider trading. He is scheduled to be arraigned and formally enter a plea at a federal courthouse in New York this coming Tuesday, according to U.S. media reports. The indictment does not detail Van Dyke’s exact day-to-day role in the Maduro operation, which involved months of preparation, air strike capabilities, a network of on-the-ground intelligence assets, and a large coordinated military build-up in the Caribbean region.

  • Xiong’an to become a hub of innovation

    Xiong’an to become a hub of innovation

    At a recent press conference held in Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei Province, provincial authorities unveiled their ambitious five-year development roadmap centered on advancing two key national strategies: the high-quality growth of the Xiong’an New Area and the deepening of coordinated development across the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Outlining priority work for the 15th Five-Year Plan period spanning 2026 to 2030, Hebei Governor Wang Zhengpu announced that the province will mobilize all necessary resources to transform Xiong’an into a leading national innovation hub and a benchmark example of high-quality development for the new era.

    A core strategic mission of Xiong’an’s development remains serving as a designated承载 zone for Beijing’s non-capital functions that have been planned for relocation. Wang detailed that provincial authorities will revise and improve master planning frameworks and supporting service systems for organizations relocating to the new area, continue steady progress on construction and launch of the first and second batches of relocation projects, and roll out the third batch of projects to maintain orderly, continuous development momentum.

    To make the new area attractive and welcoming for relocated teams and workers, Hebei will refine and optimize relocation support policies, and deepen integrated development with Beijing to ensure that relocated employees enjoy access to housing conditions and public services that match the high standards available in Beijing. “Our ultimate goal is to shift from the pattern of just individuals moving to the whole family relocating together, so that new residents can put down roots and truly make Xiong’an their home,” Wang explained.

    Early signs of progress and tangible benefits are already emerging after years of targeted development. China Datang Group Technology Innovation Co., a subsidiary of state-owned power giant China Datang Co., completed its relocation from Beijing to Xiong’an in late 2023. Liu Haiyang, deputy director of the company’s hydrogen preparation research institute, shared that the firm currently employs 85 people, nearly 70 of whom are research staff holding master’s degrees or doctorates. Thanks to generous housing subsidies for relocated enterprises and highly streamlined administrative approval services in the new area, the company has been able to expand its research and development focus on cutting-edge future energy sectors including hydrogen energy and grid energy storage, Liu added.

    Beyond the core Xiong’an New Area, other regions across Hebei are also actively taking on non-capital functions relocated from Beijing, advancing the coordinated development strategy across the entire region. For example, the Cangzhou Biomedical Industrial Park, located around 150 kilometers southeast of Xiong’an, has already attracted 49 biomedical enterprises relocated from Beijing and Tianjin, successfully realizing the development model of “R&D in Beijing and Tianjin, manufacturing in Cangzhou”, according to Hebei Executive Vice Governor Zhao Chenxin. Zhao added that Hebei is continuing to deepen this cross-regional collaboration model of “research and innovation in Beijing-Tianjin, industrial transformation in Hebei”. Data shows that in 2025, the total value of technology contracts signed between Hebei and its two neighboring municipalities exceeded 120 billion yuan (equivalent to approximately 17.6 billion U.S. dollars), representing a year-on-year increase of 16.4 percent.

    A second innovative development model gaining significant traction across Hebei is the province’s “shared intelligent manufacturing” framework, which is driving upgrading of county-level industrial clusters across the province. Hebei Vice Governor Zhao Dachun explained that under this model, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) share access to expensive production equipment, joint R&D platforms, and even national and global market distribution channels, transforming the historic pattern of cutthroat competition into mutually beneficial win-win cooperation.

    This innovative model has already delivered striking operational results. In Qinghe County, a specialized production base for cashmere products, a central shared factory equipped with 4,500 automated knitting machines can now fulfill a custom order for 200 cashmere sweaters within a single working day, a level of efficiency that would be impossible for most small individual manufacturers. Hebei plans to scale this shared manufacturing model across a wider range of industries in the coming years. By 2030, the combined total revenue of the province’s 107 key county-level industrial clusters is projected to reach 5 trillion yuan, and Hebei aims to retain its position as one of the provinces with the largest number of national-level competitive industrial clusters in China. A core focus of this expansion will be smart upgrading, Zhao Dachun noted, with artificial intelligence and big data technologies deployed to build a digital “industrial brain” that streamlines and optimizes procurement, R&D, production, and corporate financing processes for all participating SMEs.

  • Plans to clone over 100 yaks by 2028

    Plans to clone over 100 yaks by 2028

    A groundbreaking advancement in large mammal cloning for high-altitude livestock has set China on a path to expand its population of elite cloned yaks to more than 100 by 2028, marking a key step toward the industrial application of the new breeding technology, according to lead researchers on the project.

    The ambitious roadmap was unveiled by Fang Shengguo, a professor in the College of Life Sciences at Zhejiang University who heads the research initiative, coming shortly after China achieved its first successful batch cloning and natural delivery of 10 cloned yak calves in Damxung (Damshung) County, located in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region. All 10 calves were carried to full term and born naturally between March 25 and April 15, a milestone that signals the technology has moved from isolated experimental success to small-scale, replicable commercial-ready production.

    Fang explained that the project will progress from its current “1-to-10” experimental phase to the “10-to-100+” scaling phase by 2028. By the end of the target period, the team aims to establish a core population of more than 100 superior cloned yaks, selected through whole-genome sequencing analysis, develop the first stabilized improved yak strain optimized for high-altitude plateau conditions, and formalize standardized commercial cloning and breeding protocols for the industry.

    This latest breakthrough builds on the 2025 birth of the world’s first cloned yak, named “Nam Co No 1”, which delivered the first proof that somatic cell cloning technology can be successfully applied to plateau-adapted livestock. “Nam Co No 1” has already demonstrated exceptional growth performance: it weighed 16.75 kilograms at birth, and reached 183.25 kilograms just nine months later, confirming the viability of the cloned breeding approach. To date, the research program has produced 11 healthy cloned yak calves and successfully established a stable somatic cell bank to support long-term breeding work.

    The technology developed by the team integrates two cutting-edge genomic and reproductive techniques: whole genome selection and somatic cell cloning. To identify the most desirable starting genetics, researchers sequenced the genomes of nearly 9,000 yaks across Tibet to pinpoint top-tier “seed yaks” that carry highly desirable traits, including faster growth rates, stronger reproductive performance, natural disease resistance, and exceptional adaptation to the extreme low-oxygen high-altitude environment. These elite genetic profiles are then replicated exactly through cloning, allowing for precise and rapid propagation of superior livestock that cannot be achieved through conventional breeding.

    Compared to traditional selective yak breeding, which typically takes 20 to 30 years to produce a stable improved strain, this new cloning-assisted method cuts the entire breeding cycle to just five years while enabling far faster expansion of high-quality breeding populations, Fang noted.

    Local industry leaders say this technological breakthrough solves decades-long challenges that have held back Tibet’s yak industry. According to Hu Ke, head of Damxung County, unregulated cross-breeding and environmental shifts have led to gradual degradation of native yak genetic resources over the past 30 years, resulting in widespread declines in average body size, adult weight, fertility, and disease resistance across regional herds. At the same time, conventional selective breeding methods have proven too slow and inefficient to reverse these declines at a pace that matches industry needs.

    “This breakthrough opens an entirely new technological pathway for rescuing and conserving native yak genetic resources, and for accelerating the expansion of improved breeds across the plateau,” Hu stated. He added that the achievement also fills a long-empty gap in cloning technology for large mammals at high altitudes, with broader implications beyond the yak industry: it supports plateau biodiversity conservation, creates new opportunities to boost the income of local herding communities, and aligns with regional ecological conservation goals for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

    To support the scaling of the technology, Fang’s team has laid out clear next steps: ramping up in vitro embryo production, expanding the pool of healthy surrogate cows, and developing customized forage systems tailored to the needs of the new improved yak strain. On April 27, a dedicated Yak Breeding and Germplasm Conservation Innovation Center was officially inaugurated at the project’s base in Damxung, which sits 4,300 meters above sea level and is currently home to all cloned yak calves.

    Moving forward, Damxung County will deepen industry-academia-research collaboration to accelerate the development of large-scale high-quality yak breeding bases and build a national-level innovation hub for high-altitude livestock breeding, Hu confirmed.

    As a species endemic exclusively to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, yaks are far more than livestock for the region: they are the primary source of livelihood for millions of local herding households, and play a critical role in maintaining the ecological balance of the plateau’s fragile high-altitude ecosystems.

  • Plan to bring tangible benefits

    Plan to bring tangible benefits

    Against a backdrop of persistent global economic uncertainty and ongoing volatility from cross-border shocks, international economic and policy experts are praising China’s targeted strategy to expand domestic demand and advance industrial upgrading outlined in the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030), noting the agenda not only strengthens China’s own economic stability and rebalancing but also delivers measurable, long-term advantages to economies across the world, particularly developing nations in the Global South.

    Sourabh Gupta, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Institute for China-America Studies, outlined that the plan combines actionable measures to stimulate both household consumption and fixed investment while pursuing systematic industrial upgrading. On the industrial side, China has already made notable progress rationalizing sectors plagued by overcapacity, streamlining operations to boost overall global competitiveness for affected industries. In national accounting frameworks, industrial upgrading investments also count toward domestic consumption as final private purchases, amplifying the plan’s impact on internal growth.

    Gupta highlighted that the plan includes a slate of consumer-focused initiatives: expanding national networks of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, promoting growth in leisure segments including ice and snow tourism, developing nationwide circular economy recycling systems, and incentivizing spending from international inbound tourists. One of the most impactful long-term structural reforms outlined in the plan, he added, is the proposed shift of value-added and consumption tax collection points from the production (upstream) end of supply chains to the retail (downstream) end. This reform would align local government tax revenues directly with local retail consumption growth, giving regional authorities far stronger incentives to prioritize policies that boost household spending.

    Gupta also pointed to foundational policy changes rolled out in 2024 that laid groundwork for the 15th Five-Year Plan’s consumption-focused agenda, including accelerated reforms to China’s household registration system, expansions to national old-age insurance coverage, and improved workers’ compensation protections. These social safety net upgrades address key drivers of precautionary household savings, creating conditions for a sustained shift toward greater household consumption as a core driver of China’s economic growth.

    Looking at the global ripple effects of China’s domestic policy agenda, Gupta explained that expanded Chinese demand and industrial upgrading create two clear channels of benefit for Global South economies. First, rising domestic consumption in China drives increased import demand, directly supporting export-focused developing economies. Second, China’s global leadership in high-efficiency green technologies — including solar panels, energy storage batteries, and electric vehicles — creates accessible development opportunities for low- and middle-income nations. Developing countries can import affordable, high-performance green technology from China, attract Chinese investment to build local clean energy manufacturing capacity, or access low-cost financing through the Belt and Road Initiative to expand national infrastructure and grid electrification.

    “As China moves up the global value chain, it opens up new space for lower-income economies to grow,” Gupta noted. “It can relocate lower-value, labor-intensive production such as textiles, apparel, and footwear to Southeast Asia, African nations, and other emerging markets, then import those finished goods back to China. That directly powers export-led growth in those developing countries.”

    Chris Pereira, founder and CEO of New York-based global business and communications consulting firm iMpact, expanded on these cross-border spillover effects, emphasizing that China’s domestic growth strategy creates mutually beneficial, symbiotic partnerships rather than one-sided aid. “China’s push for domestic growth is creating a massive ‘spillover effect’ for the Global South,” Pereira said. “As China moves up the value chain, it’s not just exporting goods, but also affordable, high-efficiency technology. By aligning with China’s technological pace, developing nations can leapfrog traditional development hurdles that held back past generations of industrialization. This isn’t charity; it’s a symbiotic partnership.”

    Pereira added that the plan leverages China’s 1.4 billion-person consumer market to accelerate global industrial innovation, turning the country into a premier testing ground for cutting-edge technologies from multinational firms. “The 15th Five-Year Plan’s focus on boosting domestic demand isn’t just about encouraging people to buy more; it’s a strategic move to accelerate China’s industrial upgrading,” he explained. “For global firms, this has become a premier ‘testing ground’ where they can refine their most advanced technologies at ‘Shenzhen speed’ before scaling them globally.”

    Against a backdrop of repeated external shocks that have tested global economic resilience, China’s stable and expanding domestic market has emerged as a key anchor for global confidence. Ahead of the 2026 International Monetary Fund and World Bank Spring Meetings, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva emphasized in an April 9 speech that “a resilient world economy is being tested again” by ongoing external shocks, noting “the strength and agility of your fundamentals is your best defense when shocks come” and that well-designed policy makes a tangible difference for sustained growth.

    At an IMF panel focused on global imbalances held during the Spring Meetings, Helene Rey, a London Business School economics professor and incoming head of the Bank for International Settlements’ Monetary and Economic Department, noted that the 15th Five-Year Plan prioritizes pro-growth investments in human capital, including expanded investment in public healthcare, to support long-term structural rebalancing.

    Speaking on the same panel, Georgieva highlighted that China has demonstrated clear commitment to rebalancing toward stronger domestic consumption, a shift that delivers benefits both for China’s own long-term development and for global economic stability.

    Gupta echoed this assessment, noting that China’s steady growth and rebalancing act as a stabilizing force for the entire global economy. “Just China being stable and growing is already a huge positive for the world,” he said.

    At an April 9 seminar hosted by the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), PIIE senior fellow Tianlei Huang noted that China still retains significant fiscal space to implement more forceful countercyclical policies to support continued domestic demand expansion. Harvard economics professor and PIIE nonresident senior fellow Karen Dynan added at the same event that persistent disruptions from geopolitical conflict, elevated energy prices, and ongoing supply chain volatility have dragged down global growth projections, making strong domestic demand in large economies like China more critical than ever for sustaining global stability.

    The broad assessment that China’s 15th Five-Year Plan agenda supports both Chinese and global growth is shared by leading international organizations. Speaking at the China Development Forum earlier in April, IMF First Deputy Managing Director Dan Katz noted that “Their 15th Five-Year Plan prioritizes increasing consumption as a driver of economic growth, which would also help reduce China’s external imbalances. These are helpful measures, but China can do more to increase consumption and domestic demand — especially for services — by boosting household incomes and reducing incentives for precautionary savings.”

    In closing, Pereira emphasized that China’s 15th Five-Year Plan focus on expanding domestic demand creates inclusive shared opportunities, allowing businesses and economies across the world to gain from China’s continued growth. “As China doubles down on its own growth through domestic consumption and industrial upgrading, there’s plenty of room at the table for those ready to engage,” he said. “China remains the engine of global growth, and pragmatic companies see the opportunities as more tangible than ever.”

  • War in the Middle East: latest developments

    War in the Middle East: latest developments

    Two months after a joint U.S.-Israeli military offensive sent shockwaves rippling through global energy markets and upended regional security, the Middle East remains locked in a state of elevated tension, with new diplomatic moves, ongoing military clashes and economic volatility defining the latest chapter of the crisis. On Monday, the White House confirmed it is reviewing a new proposal from Iran aimed at de-escalating tensions and unblocking the critical Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint through which roughly 20% of global oil supplies transit daily. According to Iran’s Fars News Agency, Tehran transmitted the written proposal, which outlines Iran’s non-negotiable red lines covering both its nuclear program and activity around the strait, to Washington via diplomatic channels in Pakistan. U.S. President Donald Trump convened a meeting of his top national security advisors to assess the offer, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt telling reporters during a daily briefing that the proposal is “being discussed” among senior administration officials. As diplomatic talks remain in their earliest stages, the ongoing impasse between Washington and Tehran has already triggered fresh volatility across global markets. On Tuesday, international oil prices jumped sharply, while global equity markets sank, as shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains severely choked, disrupting global energy supply chains. Beyond the diplomatic standoff, Iran has laid out clear conditions for restoring security across the oil-rich Persian Gulf: Tehran demands ironclad security guarantees that the U.S. and Israel will not launch another offensive against its territory. “A durable and permanent cessation of aggression against Iran supplemented by credible guarantees of non-recurrence and full respect for the legitimate sovereign rights and interests of Iran” are non-negotiable preconditions for any de-escalation, Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations, told a session of the UN Security Council Monday. Meanwhile, military clashes continue to claim lives across the region despite the existing ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health confirmed Monday that recent Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon killed four people, including one civilian woman, and wounded 51 more, three of whom are children. Israeli military leadership has warned that the country faces an extended period of conflict across multiple fronts in the coming year. Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir noted that the IDF has maintained continuous, multi-front combat operations since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the ongoing Gaza war, and projected that 2026 will bring another full year of fighting across all active fronts. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed that assessment, emphasizing that Hezbollah remains a critical national security threat that requires continued Israeli military action in Lebanon. “There are still two central threats from Hezbollah: the 122mm rockets and the drones. This demands a combination of operational and technological activity,” Netanyahu said in a formal statement. While Netanyahu acknowledged that Hezbollah now retains only roughly 10 percent of the missile arsenal it held at the start of the current conflict, he added that the remaining weapons still pose a constant threat to Israeli civilians living in the country’s northern border regions. As tensions simmer on all fronts, the international community continues to monitor developments closely, with growing concern over the risk of the conflict expanding into a wider regional war that could have devastating consequences for the global economy and civilian populations across the Middle East.

  • A bird leaves nothing behind: The lesson behind Japan’s World Cup stadium cleanups

    A bird leaves nothing behind: The lesson behind Japan’s World Cup stadium cleanups

    When soccer’s biggest global tournament kicks off, there is one nation that consistently earns international acclaim not just for its on-pitch performance, but for a quiet, consistent act of sportsmanship off the field: Japanese soccer fans and players leaving match venues cleaner than they found them. This decades-long tradition has captivated global audiences, sparking curiosity about the cultural and social roots of the habit that surprises many foreign attendees accustomed to post-match trash-strewn stadiums.

    The long-running custom first entered the global spotlight in 1998, when Japan made its debut appearance at the World Cup in France. Since that tournament, the practice has carried on through every four-year cycle, including the 2022 World Cup held in Qatar. It is all but guaranteed to continue when Japan takes the pitch for group stage matches this June in Arlington, Texas, and Monterrey, Mexico. The behavior routinely astounds non-Japanese observers, many of whom are used to exiting stadiums and leaving discarded half-eaten food, crumpled wrappers, and half-empty beverage cups behind for venue staff to collect.

    This post-match cleanup is not a recent affectation for global cameras: it has deep roots in Japanese socialization that begins in early childhood. In elementary schools across Japan, students are responsible for cleaning their own classrooms, schoolyards, and athletic fields, with many institutions employing no full-time janitorial staff. Even in professional workplaces, adults set aside regular time to tidy their own work spaces. This upbringing carries into adult recreational and public behavior, including attending major sports matches.
    Koichi Nakano, a professor of politics and history at Tokyo’s Sophia University, explained to the Associated Press that the habits Japanese fans display at global tournaments are simply an extension of the values they learned growing up playing sports as children. The core Japanese philosophy that guides the behavior is captured in the phrase *Tatsu tori ato wo nigosazu*, which translates roughly to “A bird leaves nothing behind” in its literal form, and carries the practical meaning of “Return the space the way you found it.”

    Beyond childhood education, two additional cultural factors shape this persistent habit. First, Japan’s dense urban landscape means public spaces have far fewer public trash receptacles than many Western nations, so people are accustomed to carrying their waste with them to dispose of at home — a practice that keeps public areas clean, cuts municipal waste management costs, and deters pests. Second, the Japanese cultural concept of *meiwaku* emphasizes avoiding any inconvenience or annoyance to other people; for Japanese soccer fans, leaving a pile of trash in a stadium is seen as an unnecessary burden to venue staff and future visitors. With a population of roughly 35 million in the Greater Tokyo Area alone — nearly equal to the entire population of California — collective consideration for others is a core social value embedded from a young age.

    Sociologists studying the practice note that it reflects a broader cultural difference in priority between many Western societies and Japan: while Western cultures often emphasize individual rights and rely on public service staff to handle public space cleaning, Japanese culture centers collective well-being, meaning personal responsibility for shared spaces is normalized. Barbara Holthus, deputy director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo and a sociologist raised in Germany, warns against placing Japanese society on an unfair pedestal, noting the practice is simply the result of different socialization rather than any inherent difference. Even so, the widespread global praise Japanese fans have received for the habit has only reinforced the behavior, turning it into a point of national pride, according to Jeff Kingston, a history professor at Temple University Japan.

    The clean-up tradition is not confined exclusively to the men’s senior World Cup. Last year, Japanese fans repeated the practice at the Under-20 World Cup in Chile, and just last month they did the same following an international friendly win over England at London’s Wembley Stadium. Toshi Yoshizawa, who led the clean-up effort in Chile, called the practice “one of our traditions,” noting that Japanese people grow up taught to leave a place cleaner than they found it.

    William Kelly, emeritus professor of anthropology at Yale University and a Japan specialist, speculates that the custom is particularly tied to soccer in Japan rather than other popular sports. He links it to the founding of Japan’s professional J-League more than 30 years ago, when the new league sought to differentiate itself from established Japanese baseball by emphasizing deep community ties and fan commitment to local clubs, fostering a stronger sense of shared ownership over match venues among supporters.

  • Gunman, reportedly age 89, opens fire at 2 locations in Greek capital, wounding several people

    Gunman, reportedly age 89, opens fire at 2 locations in Greek capital, wounding several people

    On Tuesday, a shooting attacker carried out two connected shooting attacks at public facilities in the heart of Athens, Greece, leaving multiple people injured, Greek law enforcement confirmed. A wide-ranging police manhunt was immediately launched to track down the suspect, who local Greek media has identified as an 89-year-old man.

    According to police statements, the incident began when the suspect, armed with a shotgun, opened fire inside a local social security office located in central Athens. One employee of the office was hurt in the first attack. Responding officers reached the scene quickly to administer first aid to the wounded worker, but the shooter managed to escape before officers could secure the area.

    Shortly after the first shooting, authorities confirmed the same suspect was responsible for a second attack on the ground floor of a nearby courthouse, also situated in central Athens. Several additional people were wounded in this second incident, and law enforcement later recovered the shotgun used in both attacks at the scene.

    Footage captured by Greece’s state-owned public broadcaster ERT shows emergency medical teams moving at least three injured people from the courthouse to waiting ambulances for transport to local hospitals. As of the latest update, the full motive behind the coordinated attacks remains unconfirmed by authorities. ERT’s reporting notes that after carrying out the courthouse shooting, the suspect reportedly scattered a series of envelopes containing documents across the floor, claiming the papers contained his reasons for the violence.

    Alexandros Varveris, director of Greece’s National Social Security Fund (commonly referenced by its Greek acronym EFKA), shared more detailed on-the-ground context of the first attack. Varveris explained the shooter traveled to the fourth floor of EFKA’s Kerameikos district office, warned a specific employee to “duck” before opening fire, and accidentally struck a different employee in the leg. The suspect had managed to conceal the shotgun under a long trenchcoat to avoid detection when entering the building, Varveris added.

    “He entered the building, took the elevator to the fourth floor, raised his shotgun, ordered one employee to duck, and ended up hitting another staff member,” Varveris told ERT radio in an interview, noting that the injured victim did not appear to be the gunman’s intended target. First responders applied a tourniquet to the wounded employee’s leg at the scene before transferring him to a nearby hospital for further treatment.

    Notably, gun violence remains a relatively rare occurrence in Greece, a country where legal gun ownership is permitted but subject to extremely strict national regulations.

  • New study finds ‘brake’ gene for Alzheimer’s

    New study finds ‘brake’ gene for Alzheimer’s

    A groundbreaking collaborative study led by scientists based in Shanghai has identified a key gene that acts as a natural brake on Alzheimer’s disease progression, a discovery made possible by the creation of the world’s first in vivo functional map of regulatory molecular switches in brain astrocytes. The findings, published April 25, 2026 on the official website of the top peer-reviewed journal *Science*, mark a major new direction for Alzheimer’s treatment and open new doors for research into a wide range of other devastating neurological conditions.

    The research brought together experts from three institutions: the Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai Sixth People’s Hospital, and the Shanghai-based biotechnology firm Genemagic. Astrocytes, the most abundant non-neuronal cells in the human brain, play a critical role in supporting and protecting healthy neurons. When Alzheimer’s develops, however, these supportive cells undergo harmful dysfunction that speeds up neuronal death, a process that has been poorly understood by the scientific community until now.

    To unpack how astrocyte function is regulated, the research team developed an innovative in vivo high-throughput sequencing platform called iGOFPerturb-seq, which enables large-scale, simultaneous analysis of transcription factor function — the molecular ‘switches’ that control how cells behave. The team used engineered adeno-associated viruses targeted specifically to astrocytes to deliver nearly 1,000 different transcription factors into the brains of laboratory mice, with each transcription factor tagged with a unique genetic barcode to track its effect. Using single-cell sequencing technology, the researchers analyzed nearly 400,000 individual astrocytes in parallel, linking each cell’s functional state to the specific transcription factor it had received. This method allowed them to assemble the first ever complete functional map of astrocyte regulatory switches in a living organism.

    “This map is like a treasure map, helping scientists quickly identify candidate master regulators that can prevent astrocytes from becoming dysfunctional,” explained Zhou Haibo, the lead scientist of the study. From an initial pool of 39 promising regulatory molecules, the team identified Ferd3l, a transcription factor, as the most potent modifier capable of reversing astrocyte dysfunction in Alzheimer’s. To test the gene’s effectiveness, researchers activated Ferd3l in astrocytes of mouse models genetically engineered to develop human-like Alzheimer’s disease via intravenous injection. The treated mice saw dramatic improvements to their cognitive function, with performance on object recognition and maze tests nearly matching that of healthy control mice.

    Zhang Liansheng, the first author of the published study, noted that further analysis revealed how Ferd3l works: it helps dysfunctional astrocytes re-establish healthy, cooperative interactions with both neurons and microglia — the brain’s primary resident immune cells — restoring functional order to the inflamed, disrupted brain environment characteristic of Alzheimer’s.

    Unlike the majority of existing Alzheimer’s therapies, which focus exclusively on clearing beta-amyloid plaques from the brain, this new research targets astrocyte function, offering a complementary treatment strategy that could significantly improve long-term patient outcomes. In 2025, China launched an innovative beta-amyloid targeting therapy that has since been added to supplemental public health insurance coverage in major Chinese cities including Beijing, with clinical data showing sustained patient benefits even after treatment is stopped following successful plaque clearance.

    Beyond Alzheimer’s, the study’s biggest impact may lie in its open-access resource: the full functional map of astrocyte regulators will be made available to research institutions and pharmaceutical companies across the globe, enabling scientists to search for similar ‘brake’ genes for other incurable neurological disorders including Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The research also establishes a large library of potential new drug targets for a wide range of neurological conditions, accelerating the development of next-generation therapies for currently untreatable brain diseases.

  • What happened when Rebel Wilson gave evidence in court?

    What happened when Rebel Wilson gave evidence in court?

    Court proceedings have unfolded involving high-profile Hollywood comedian Rebel Wilson, who has been dragged into a legal dispute over alleged defamatory comments brought by Australian counterpart Charlotte MacInnes. As the case moves through the judicial system, all eyes have turned to the witness stand where Wilson has delivered her sworn testimony to answer the accusations leveled against her.

    MacInnes, who works alongside Wilson in the entertainment industry, claims that Wilson made statements that damaged her professional reputation and personal standing, forming the basis of the defamation claim filed against the Pitch Perfect star. Legal analysts note that defamation cases in the entertainment space often hinge on proving whether the comments in question meet the legal criteria for harm, and that the outcome of this case could set quiet precedent for similar celebrity disputes moving forward. At this stage of proceedings, both legal teams have presented their initial arguments, with Wilson’s legal team defending her statements and pushing back against MacInnes’ claims of reputational damage.